Eagle issue

[Sparkie]

First of all i want to thank anyone who takes the time to read this, this is a really sticky situation. Here is the situation (i'll try to keep it Readers Digest style!).

 

Last year our SM stepped down, he is still actively involved in the troop. During his term of SM, he "rubber stamped" Eagle projects, without letting com. mem. ask questions. The project was presented, he said "sounds good" it was approved. Now....his son is trying to work on his Eagle. Unfortunately, we (troop com.) have denied his project 2x.

 

His first project was to teach challenged kids soccer after school. He does not have to recruit the kids, they already meet after school (for extra help) and then they have free time in which one of the choices is to play soccer. Note, his 2 brothers BOTH did similar projects to benefit this same orgn. (dist. almost didn't approve 2d brothers for this reason). Soccer supplies are already at the school. Because of the issues above, we recommended he find another orgn. to benefit. And to recruit kids who would otherwise not be playing soccer. Lots of other issues, like who would be teaching who, but i think i've given you a good picture on this one.

 

2nd project is to plant flowers in beds (already existing) at a church. For the past 2 years parishioners have volunteered to plant these beds, some have perenniels. The flowers he was going to use were annuals (he did not know what a perennial was). Half of the beds were already spoken for by a parishioner, but he had included those areas in the project (NOT!). This sounded more like the Gardening MB than an Eagle project. There is no changing of the landscape, no new edging. From a committee viewpoint, we did not see this as a challenge to the scout. We recommended he dig up some grass around the church sign out front where there are no flowers, and make it a flowerbed. In other words, do something constructive and challenging.

 

Other issues, he did not come to the com. in full uniform, he did not have the proper signatures (let alone his WORKBOOK!), nor did he have a copy of his project to hand out to us.

 

AND...aside from all that, the CC son is going to be presenting a project in which his mother runs the program (remember the first project above? this scouts mother runs the program for challenged kids).

 

I'm thinking we (the troop) need guidelines to give parents/scouts on what factors into a good Eagle project, and what is expected by the troop/dist. We do encourage attending Life to Eagle seminars, and we are just now going to appoint a sr. scout to mentor the Life scout. Everything i've read just seems so subjective in regards to Eagle projects, there has to be some sort of baseline!

 

What issues does your troop look at when a project is presented? Thanks for your time, really!!

 

Sparkie

[dancinfox]

In reading the Eagle Scout Workbook, it gives guidelines to the scout how to go about finding and getting approval for an Eagle Project. The scout must first go to the Scoutmaster. To me, this is where the scout finds out if the project is Eagle Project material. Once the project is approved by the Scoutmaster and the workbook is signed, then the scout presents it to the Troop Committee for their approval and signature. After the Committee approves the project the scout then presents it to the organization for their final approval and signature. Then the scout presents the project to the District or Council Advancement Chairperson. Once the Advancement Chair approves and signs the project workbook, work can begin on the project. There are a lot of people in the mix that can have the scout change or improve upon the project until it's final approval by the Advancement Chair. Once all approvals have been received, and the project done, it's a offical Eagle Project. If anyone has problems with it, to bad. I think everything starts with the Scoutmaster. If he or she is doing their job corectly, then the project should be one that the Eagle, organization, and Troop can be proud of.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Dancin